Anyone who knows me or has read this blog knows how I feel about apathy. I believe the biggest problem in this country, believe it or not, is not George W. but the apathy and ignorance of the citizens within it. I for one can say I don't always vote and do not stay as informed as I should regarding politics whether local or national. I feel I need to do better in this regard in order to uphold my responsibility as a member of the most powerful nation in the world.
That said, tomorrow is a very important day for all of us as voters. The decisions our government has made and will continue to make are directly related to who we as citizens decide to put in office. Since I've been alive, there has never been a more important election. If you think it doesn't matter, I personally feel you're wrong. The last time I heard that, our country voted in one of the most radical presidents our country has ever known despite warnings from those who predicted he was a war mongering, gay hating, Christian cowboy, with unprecedented short sightedness and zero tolerance for diversity. Need proof, look at the state of this country and the world we live in now compared to 6 years ago.
Please vote. As Americans it is the single most important and responsible thing we can do. When we don't do it, we are saying we don't care about those most directly affected by the decisions our government makes. This type of thinking has resulted in decisions being made that affect us all in more ways than just our pocketbooks. The reason our country has gotten where it has is because of apathy and ignorance.
"What's the difference anyway, politicians are all the same". This simply is not true...not all politicians want war, not all politicians are against a womens right to choose, not all politicians are against gay marriage, or for inhumane immigration reforms, or reducing taxes for the rich, or allowing for education to spiral out of control, or running our government like Enron. If you need help deciding who believes in what and what a politicians platform and just as important what they've actually done in terms of voting records and the like, you can visit www.vote-smart.org.
For one day out of the year, tomorrow, put down your remote control, shut down blogger, turn off your IPod, cancel your yoga class, skip your nap, turn off Oprah(who will likely be telling you to vote), whatever it takes to get to your polling place. If you aren't registered, get registered tomorrow instead of voting and be sure to vote next time. Sitting there means you don't care. Even if you don't care for yourself...please care for the rest of the world and those who will inherit it that can't vote, like Jack.
Go through your address book on your cell phone and computer and call/e-mail everyone you know. Tell them how much it would mean to you if they vote on Tuesday. If they don't know where to vote, help them find their polling place.
Monday, November 6, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
The Monster Visits For Halloween
Jack went to a new pediatrician today for a flu shot. Once again, Susie was forced to go it alone, as seems to be the case when bad news is given.
Jack apparently screemed as most babies do for his shot. The bad news however is that Jack's rate of head growth has once again jumped. You may remember that it had previously tapered off. Head size is of course not the concern. I don't care if he looks like a bobble head; the problem is this likely means that the cyst in his head has increased in size and therefore increases the chance of pressure on the brain. As you might expect this can cause many problems, including those that we notice all the time or it could cause no problems (doctors look at extreme symptoms only despite all descriptive data I have looked at collected by parents indicating a myriad of suggested issues).
As you may have gathered through this blog or conversations with Susie and I or actual time spent with Jack, he is quite a moody little guy. However, in brief periods of time, 3, 4, or 5 hours, he usually does well, especially when others are around. Looking at others with babies Jack's age, I often find myself saying, we could never do that with Jack or he would never sit still that long and so on. Some of this I'm sure is normal but right now it doesn't feel that way.
At times we have thought Jack was getting sick only to find that nothing manifested into a cold or anything of the sort. Is it possible he has been having headaches as this is commonly associated with arachnoid cysts? Is it possible this is why Jack was pulling at his hair above the location of the cyst just a few days back? Is it possible that Jack has trouble sleeping lately as late as he was due to increased cranial pressure which I've read is likely to increase when lying down? Is it possible that Jack's left eye which is slightly lazy is due to the effects of the cyst on his brain? Who the hell knows? If I had to guess I would think the answer is yes.
I think I have long felt that Jack has been such a difficult baby due to some other reason besides personality. Further, Susie and I have relatively good coping skills with most life problems we face, but we seemingly are only average at coping with our baby boy, often not seeming to enjoy things or cope as well as others we know. I'm beginning to think this is due to Jack being a bit more unpredictable and possibly just simply not feeling as well as most kids a great deal of his life thus far.
I sent out a request for other peoples experiences with parenting a baby and only got one reply aside from Susie. Probably just as well since I think we are playing a whole different ballgame here.
Once again we are in the hands of the unknown. Once again I'm feeling helpless. Once again I just want to go home and hug my baby boy.
I do feel everything will be fine. I just wish that I could know that Jack isn't experiencing migraines and that his eye isn't drooping from brain pressure and that he won't have to go through brain surgery, EVER.
Jack apparently screemed as most babies do for his shot. The bad news however is that Jack's rate of head growth has once again jumped. You may remember that it had previously tapered off. Head size is of course not the concern. I don't care if he looks like a bobble head; the problem is this likely means that the cyst in his head has increased in size and therefore increases the chance of pressure on the brain. As you might expect this can cause many problems, including those that we notice all the time or it could cause no problems (doctors look at extreme symptoms only despite all descriptive data I have looked at collected by parents indicating a myriad of suggested issues).
As you may have gathered through this blog or conversations with Susie and I or actual time spent with Jack, he is quite a moody little guy. However, in brief periods of time, 3, 4, or 5 hours, he usually does well, especially when others are around. Looking at others with babies Jack's age, I often find myself saying, we could never do that with Jack or he would never sit still that long and so on. Some of this I'm sure is normal but right now it doesn't feel that way.
At times we have thought Jack was getting sick only to find that nothing manifested into a cold or anything of the sort. Is it possible he has been having headaches as this is commonly associated with arachnoid cysts? Is it possible this is why Jack was pulling at his hair above the location of the cyst just a few days back? Is it possible that Jack has trouble sleeping lately as late as he was due to increased cranial pressure which I've read is likely to increase when lying down? Is it possible that Jack's left eye which is slightly lazy is due to the effects of the cyst on his brain? Who the hell knows? If I had to guess I would think the answer is yes.
I think I have long felt that Jack has been such a difficult baby due to some other reason besides personality. Further, Susie and I have relatively good coping skills with most life problems we face, but we seemingly are only average at coping with our baby boy, often not seeming to enjoy things or cope as well as others we know. I'm beginning to think this is due to Jack being a bit more unpredictable and possibly just simply not feeling as well as most kids a great deal of his life thus far.
I sent out a request for other peoples experiences with parenting a baby and only got one reply aside from Susie. Probably just as well since I think we are playing a whole different ballgame here.
Once again we are in the hands of the unknown. Once again I'm feeling helpless. Once again I just want to go home and hug my baby boy.
I do feel everything will be fine. I just wish that I could know that Jack isn't experiencing migraines and that his eye isn't drooping from brain pressure and that he won't have to go through brain surgery, EVER.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Sick And Tired
Okay...I had written along rant about our weekend and how difficult Jack was and how hard our life is and how I'm sooooo tired and then, I erased it. I don't want to complain.
What I do want is some honest antecdotal opinions about what YOU think about being the parent of a baby. I don't want the sugar coated answers like, "it's all worth it", or, "it's hard but could be worse", or "each time I look in her eyes all the difficult stuff just goes away". I want the truth. Do you like your life as a parent of a baby? Not, do you like your baby or would you rather have your old life back. I for one would never even remotely consider giving up my life now for my old life and assume most of you wouldn't either. But, that does not mean I enjoy the grind of parenting a baby. I'm attempting to navigate through this myth that being a parent of a baby is some magical, ridiculously fulfilling time period. When, in my experience, it's a motherload of work and a roller coaster of emotions.
Quite honestly, I can't wait until the babyhood is over and the kiddom begins. Let me hear you out there in blogville. What do you really think about it? Again, please don't say any cliches, like, "you'll miss it when it's gone". I'm looking for real experiences, feelings in the moment, not wisdom and realizations after the fact. I already miss Jack's littleness but I certainly don't miss the colic days and never want those back despite many saying that I would.
By the way...if you can't already tell...Susie and I are the proud parents of an extremely loved and wonderful ONLY CHILD!!!
What I do want is some honest antecdotal opinions about what YOU think about being the parent of a baby. I don't want the sugar coated answers like, "it's all worth it", or, "it's hard but could be worse", or "each time I look in her eyes all the difficult stuff just goes away". I want the truth. Do you like your life as a parent of a baby? Not, do you like your baby or would you rather have your old life back. I for one would never even remotely consider giving up my life now for my old life and assume most of you wouldn't either. But, that does not mean I enjoy the grind of parenting a baby. I'm attempting to navigate through this myth that being a parent of a baby is some magical, ridiculously fulfilling time period. When, in my experience, it's a motherload of work and a roller coaster of emotions.
Quite honestly, I can't wait until the babyhood is over and the kiddom begins. Let me hear you out there in blogville. What do you really think about it? Again, please don't say any cliches, like, "you'll miss it when it's gone". I'm looking for real experiences, feelings in the moment, not wisdom and realizations after the fact. I already miss Jack's littleness but I certainly don't miss the colic days and never want those back despite many saying that I would.
By the way...if you can't already tell...Susie and I are the proud parents of an extremely loved and wonderful ONLY CHILD!!!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Men--support a good one
You might think by the title, another rant is coming. Well, not this time. Many of you know I don't think very highly of my breathren. Not because of something I read or something I learned in Multicultural Class 101, although that did help me make sense of "it" many years back. My aversion has been created through experiences.
Well there is hope! A man who gets "it" is hard to come by. I mean, one who understands "it", his relationship to "it", and, who attempt to not contribute to "it", and, in some rare cases actually sets out to do something about "it". If you don't know what "it" is then you probably don't get "it" and, well, I guess this entry isn't for you...especially if you are dying to substitute "it" with the name of a female body part or something sexually related or some other word that immediately proves my point.
Recently, a man whom I worked with in a limited capacity quit his job, took a new international/humanitarian job, and relocated to the Gaza Strip to help those in need. I thought he seemed to get "it" in my brief experiences with him at work. Unfortunately, I didn't know for sure until he was gone. He's not out to save the world I don't think but he is out to make a difference and do his part to make it a better place.
You can visit his blog as the link is located in the side bar to the left under My Favorite Blog of the week.
You can also visit the organization he is working for by clicking on the following link and donate to this worthy cause:
JumpStart International
Well there is hope! A man who gets "it" is hard to come by. I mean, one who understands "it", his relationship to "it", and, who attempt to not contribute to "it", and, in some rare cases actually sets out to do something about "it". If you don't know what "it" is then you probably don't get "it" and, well, I guess this entry isn't for you...especially if you are dying to substitute "it" with the name of a female body part or something sexually related or some other word that immediately proves my point.
Recently, a man whom I worked with in a limited capacity quit his job, took a new international/humanitarian job, and relocated to the Gaza Strip to help those in need. I thought he seemed to get "it" in my brief experiences with him at work. Unfortunately, I didn't know for sure until he was gone. He's not out to save the world I don't think but he is out to make a difference and do his part to make it a better place.
You can visit his blog as the link is located in the side bar to the left under My Favorite Blog of the week.
You can also visit the organization he is working for by clicking on the following link and donate to this worthy cause:
JumpStart International
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Big Night Out!!!
Susie and I are going out tomorrow night to see a concert!!! Yes, it's true! We have not been out at night by ourselves in months. I think it has been since March on our anniversary. We haven't been out at all since last month without Jack.
We haven't been to a real concert since we saw The Pixies in 2004. The ironic thing I guess is that we are going to see Frank Black...the lead singer of The Pixies and one of my all time favorites but more for his solo stuff.
Honestly, I'd be excited if we were going to see Conway Twitty (why him, I don't know). I'm just happy we're going out! Lookout world...we're going to get wild on Friday night. Details to be kept secret until death.
We haven't been to a real concert since we saw The Pixies in 2004. The ironic thing I guess is that we are going to see Frank Black...the lead singer of The Pixies and one of my all time favorites but more for his solo stuff.
Honestly, I'd be excited if we were going to see Conway Twitty (why him, I don't know). I'm just happy we're going out! Lookout world...we're going to get wild on Friday night. Details to be kept secret until death.
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